The Other Girl
by Cyn V
Summary: The Fire Daimyou's daughter has fallen in love. Obito is most embarrassed, Rin misunderstands entirely and Kakashi can only roll his eyes from the sidelines. (An ObiRin one-shot.)


**Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns _Naruto_. I just fool around with it.  
><span>Notes<span>: Just a little ObiRin ficlet, featuring clueless!Rin. Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>The Other Girl<strong>

The three youngest members of team Minato had finished saying their farewells to the Fire Daimyou's advisors and were shouldering their packs just outside the Lord's castle, ready to set out back home after a successful mission, when a young girl bid them to wait.

They turned to see the Lord's youngest daughter hurry towards them down the stairway that led into the castle. A trail of majestic red silk with small printed flowers came flying behind her and her geta clacked against the stone flags. The little bells inside the wooden footwear chimed along with the ornamented pins holding up her shiny black hair, a delicate melody over the beat of her feet. Nervous that she might trip over the long hem of her kimono, one of the guards ran up to hold her hand and assist her on her way to the ensemble at the bottom.

Rin watched her approach with a smile. She, Obito and Kakashi had been assigned to escort the young noble, Princess Momo, as she travelled here from her mother's family residence and, being that only a few months separated the two girls in age, they had gotten to know each other rather well throughout the week-long journey. Momo had been fascinated with the idea that there could be female ninja and Rin had gladly told her all the stories that she knew about famous kunoichi: from Mito Uzumaki, the first Hokage's wife, to the lady Tsunade. The other girl had also wanted to know about her team, however. Particularly, she had had a lot of questions about a certain black-haired chuunin who had somehow earned her admiration after a scuffle with some bandits.

Rin looked over at Obito as she thought of all the high adjectives the Daimyou's daughter had used to describe him in the privacy of her palanquin, where no one but Rin could hear. She had to suppress a giggle. As friendly and easy to get along with as he was, and as much as Rin liked him, she simply could not see the clumsy and immature boy as "an envoy of the benevolent Niō Guardians" or "descendant of the God of Fire Fudō". Rin supposed she could explain it away as an overly impressionable, sheltered girl getting carried away by her Buddhist studies and the Uchiha's fire techniques, but still... it was only Obito.

"Thank you for waiting," the young noble said as they exchanged bows as protocol demanded. "I wanted to thank you one last time for your friendship and for all that you have done for me. I hope that this will not be the last we see of each other."

Rin felt some sympathy for her. Back on the road, they had had the freedom to treat each other as equals. Now that they were under the scrutiny of her father's officials, even something as fundamental as speech patterns had to change. Not to say anything about attire or posture. This red kimono was infinitely more elaborate than the cotton yukata Momo had been wearing on the road and it was almost distressing to see the way she kept her eyes lowered, shoulders straight and hands clasped so tightly over her knees that her knuckles had turned white. Rin wanted to give her a hug, to show that she would continue to think of her as a friend, but she knew she could not.

Then, just as Rin heard Kakashi shuffle to give the polite response – he had been named team leader, despite the fact that they were all the same rank – stupid and foolish and completely inappropriate Obito went and did exactly what she hoped someone would. He held one of the girl's hands and gave her a beaming smile.

"It was our pleasure, Princess! We'll see each other again for sure, you know? Our teacher Minato is going to be the next Hokage someday, so we'll be by again for the ceremony before you know it. And you can also come visit us whenever you're in Konoha, of course!"

The officials were now treating Obito with a scowl, but, for Rin, the only reaction that mattered came from the Daimyou's daughter herself. Blushing until her face was the same shade of red as her kimono, Momo returned Obito's gesture twofold.

"Thank you, Obito! I will," she said. She grasped his hand with both of hers, then leaned on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

In return, Obito blushed even harder than the noble girl. If Rin had needed proof that he was no Fire God's grandson, this was it, because his face clearly did not do well with heat. This time, Rin could not hold back her laughter with will alone and had to hide it behind her hands. She turned towards Kakashi, hoping to silently share her amusement with him, but, as usual, his face was as humourless as a brick wall. Her cheer was replaced with confusion, though, when she saw Obito quickly let go of the other girl's hands and shoot an embarrassed glance Rin's way.

"Well, we should get going," Kakashi's dull voice cut through the slightly awkward moment. "Thank you for your kindness, Princess."

Emboldened by Obito's initiative, Rin also gave the girl a little wave before turning around and following her teammates onto the road. Obito just chewed his lip and did not dare to meet Princess Momo's eyes again. It was strange to see him so subdued, so once Rin was sure they were out of earshot of the few who still lingered at the Daimyou's castle entrance, she poked him on the side.

"Hey, it can't have hurt that much," she teased.

The look he answered her with, however, suggested that perhaps it did.

"Rin...? You know that... what happened back there was... well... I..."

Rin gasped. Could it be? The way Obito had been blushing certainly indicated it, but did her teammate really return Princess Momo's feelings? Yes, it all made perfect sense now. It was like every girl's fantasy: the knight falling in love with the princess. Of course Obito would be embarrassed and of course he would want to explain himself to Rin. Out of all of them, she had gotten to know Momo the better.

"Obito, don't worry about anything," she assured him, giving him a conspiratorial wink. "I got it. Your secret's safe with me."

Kakashi gave a loud snort from his position at the front of the group, which Rin found very inconsiderate. She would never tell him that, though. For his part, Obito had finally lost the redness in his cheeks and was now looking at her like he was trying very hard to figure something out.

"My... secret...?"

"Yes, I promise! True love conquers all, right?"

At that, Obito stopped walking and just stared at Rin. His eyes were shining like what she had said was a revelation.

"You... you feel the same way?" He sounded so hopeful that he might as well have been a child. It awakened a few motherly feelings in Rin. Even Kakashi stopped to see what would come of the question.

"Of course, Obito!" Rin said. "And you can count on my help to get together with Momo next time we see her, all right?"

Had Rin taken the time to look for Obito's reaction, had she taken just a second longer before turning around to continue walking, there was no way she could have missed the disappointment that washed across the Uchiha's expressive face. As it was, all that the young chuunin could do was pull down his goggles over his eyes and walk past Kakashi and his mildly reproving head shaking.

"Thanks for the offer, Rin, but there's no need. You're right: true love does conquer all," Obito said, more to himself than to his teammate and long time crush.


End file.
